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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
I am considering replacing my old deskside machine.
Do any of the programs that purport to move apps, settings and files work well? In the past I was able simply to restore an image of the entire old machine on the new one. That's worked, but I'd prefer not to do it because I suspect the Windows 10 system has grown a little crufty. |
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#2
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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
On 2019-10-04 11:00, Jason wrote:
I am considering replacing my old deskside machine. Do any of the programs that purport to move apps, settings and files work well? In the past I was able simply to restore an image of the entire old machine on the new one. That's worked, but I'd prefer not to do it because I suspect the Windows 10 system has grown a little crufty. LapLink PCMover has been reliable in the past for me. I've used it to move data from XP to Vista, Vista to 7, Vista to 8, Vista to 10, and 7 to 10. It moves apps, having first built a list of apps it should move which you can override if you want but it's not usually a good idea to do so. (Typically it leaves off hardware specific apps such as the vast number of 'helper' apps shipping with most machines from HP, Dell, Asus, etc. and which I normally kill first thing anyway.) It moves your settings, including settings for things like web browsers. And, of course, it moves your data, and not just the data in your user folders. And it's cheap. |
#3
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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
On 04/10/2019 16:00, Jason wrote:
I am considering replacing my old deskside machine. Do any of the programs that purport to move apps, settings and files work well? NO -- With over 1,000,000 million devices now running Windows 10, customer satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows. |
#4
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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
On 2019-10-04 14:23, 😉 Good Guy 😉 wrote:
On 04/10/2019 16:00, Jason wrote: I am considering replacing my old deskside machine. Do any of the programs that purport to move apps, settings and files work well? NO Experience with LapLink PCMover over the course of more than a decade indicates otherwise. Microsoft includes tools which will move settings and files, but not applications. PCMover moves applications and does it properly, updating the registry correctly and installing without DRM problems. This includes installing items such as MS Office and Adobe Creative Cloud and Creative Suite. One wonders why you feel that PCMover and similar tools do not work, particularly when experience over more than a decade and over multiple machines with multiple versions of Windows says that PCMover does work. Could you please elucidate further? |
#5
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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
On Fri, 4 Oct 2019 11:00:29 -0400, Jason
wrote: I am considering replacing my old deskside machine. Do any of the programs that purport to move apps, settings and files work well? Settings and files should be no problem. Moving files does not even need a special tool to move them. Just copy the files to external media, then copy from the external media to the new computer. Moving programs is a different matter. I've tried several program-moving programs over the year, and they all failed on moving some programs. But you could try one. Depending on what programs you have to move, it might work better for you than it did for me. And worst case, if it fails on only some, you could reinstall just those programs rather than all. |
#6
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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
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#7
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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
On Fri, 04 Oct 2019 14:04:52 -0700, Ken Blake wrote:
Moving files does not even need a special tool to move them. Just copy the files to external media, then copy from the external media to the new computer. Moving programs is a different matter. I've tried several program-moving programs over the year, and they all failed on moving some programs. I will add that we all have experience with this process for decades. Copying files from old to new is so trivial it won't be discussed. The problem, of course, is all based on programs - and settings. Lately, drivers, while in the past problematic, aren't usually an issue. Some suggest doubledriver, driverbackup, & drvback, but I've found them to be of limited usefulness in that they all failed in the very cases where I really needed a driver (e.g., so-called legacy printers). I posit that most programs simply should be re-installed & reset. Many people use archival solutions such as macrium reflect, but I find that approach so worthless as to not deserve mention in a serious discussion. The real effort, I suggest, should be in setting up the new computer such that the data you care about is kept in a safe place at all times, e.g., c:\data\{put stuff you care about here - in a reasonable hierarchy for you} Where you put that data is not important, so choose any location you like: c:\users\user1\data\{put all your data in a hierarchy easily archived} The programs are generally trivial to re-install & reset. Particularly if the owner has saved the original full offline installers. For licenses, on this ng we have often discussed three players o Belarc Advisor o Magical JellyBean Finder o ShowKey Plus Where their results are spotty, so you likely want to use all three, where the least useful is Magical JellyBean Finder, and the most useful is Belarc Advisor. You can also try Sandra freeware, but it gets worse over time. My main problem with Belarc is unrelated to this problem set, which is that I deplore programs that are so poorly designed that they don't ask where they should be installed. For the _new_ installation, I suggest everyone follow a basic plan. a. Keep stuff you care about b. Separate from stuff you don't care about |
#8
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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
On 10/4/2019 11:00 AM, Jason wrote:
I am considering replacing my old deskside machine. Do any of the programs that purport to move apps, settings and files work well? In the past I was able simply to restore an image of the entire old machine on the new one. That's worked, but I'd prefer not to do it because I suspect the Windows 10 system has grown a little crufty. Just copy the image over to the new machine, and then run the Windows 10 In-Place Upgrade Installation procedure. That's renew the Windows 10 image to a fresh new image, without getting rid of programs and settings. It's as good as a fresh new install of Windows. Yousuf Khan |
#9
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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
On Sun, 6 Oct 2019 11:13:19 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote:
Just copy the image over to the new machine, and then run the Windows 10 In-Place Upgrade Installation procedure. That's renew the Windows 10 image to a fresh new image, without getting rid of programs and settings. It's as good as a fresh new install of Windows. Does that really work? More specifically, if the old image was "crufty" (for reasons unknown almost always, so you have no idea where crufty is hiding)... Does the "In-Place Upgrade Installation Procedure" really work? |
#10
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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
On 10/6/2019 12:34 PM, Arlen _G_ Holder wrote:
On Sun, 6 Oct 2019 11:13:19 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote: Just copy the image over to the new machine, and then run the Windows 10 In-Place Upgrade Installation procedure. That's renew the Windows 10 image to a fresh new image, without getting rid of programs and settings. It's as good as a fresh new install of Windows. Does that really work? More specifically, if the old image was "crufty" (for reasons unknown almost always, so you have no idea where crufty is hiding)... Does the "In-Place Upgrade Installation Procedure" really work? Haven't found a situation where it doesn't work as well as a complete reinstall. However, the procedure is a lot more complicated for the Windows Installer program to handle, as it backs up a lot of settings and info before it proceeds to reinstall Windows, so it might actually take longer than a simple Windows fresh install. It also creates a backup of the original Windows directory in a folder called Windows.old. If any kind of failure occurs during the install, then it aborts everything and restores the original back from Windows.old. So you may get an installation failure, but you'll just be back to where you started originally. At that point, if you're still intent on reinstalling Windows, then you may decide to go with a fresh install instead. But I always try In-Place Upgrade first. As for "crufty" Windows, most of that is due to programs installing custom Windows DLL's. Due to this, Windows keeps many backups of various versions of DLL's, for each program that might want its own version. An In-Place Install clears away older unnecessary DLL's, and then programs can begin requesting custom versions again as necessary, and the process of heading towards cruftiness starts all over again. But at least it starts from a slimmer base again. Yousuf Khan |
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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
"Arlen _G_ Holder" wrote in message
... On Sun, 6 Oct 2019 11:13:19 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote: Just copy the image over to the new machine, and then run the Windows 10 In-Place Upgrade Installation procedure. That's renew the Windows 10 image to a fresh new image, without getting rid of programs and settings. It's as good as a fresh new install of Windows. Does that really work? More specifically, if the old image was "crufty" (for reasons unknown almost always, so you have no idea where crufty is hiding)... Does the "In-Place Upgrade Installation Procedure" really work? I agree completely with Yousuf; I've used it a few times on different PCs. Here's a link to an in-depth description of how to do it: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html -- SC Tom |
#12
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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
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#13
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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
On Mon, 7 Oct 2019 12:48:33 -0400, Jason wrote:
Yousef's recommendation of a Windows update install is something I have NOT tried, so thanks Yousef for the sugge I have one windows 10 pro that fails to reboot about 1 in 10 times, and I have another windows 10 install where the winxp-style accordion cascade menu pinned to the taskbar takes about 20 seconds to populate for some strange reason ... Neither of which is enough "cruftiness" to warrant a full re-install... So, I may try this Windows 10 update in place process, after all. Thanks for the words of support for Yousef's recommendation. Looks like I have some reading to do, first... o How to perform an In-place Upgrade with Windows 10 Step-by-Step Guide https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install-winpc/how-to-perform-an-in-place-upgrade-with-windows-10/7f0b236e-3c6c-4913-9691-c4baa2a6190a o How to repair Windows 10 with in-place upgrade. https://www.wintips.org/repair-windows-10-with-in-place-upgrade/ o How to Do a Repair Install of Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html o Perform an in-place upgrade to Windows 10 using Configuration Manager https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/upgrade/upgrade-to-windows-10-with-system-center-configuraton-manager o In-Place Windows 10 upgrade for repair https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/in-place-windows-10-upgrade-for-repair/dd002c01-6ccf-402a-9e19-e52929e43066 o Windows 10 Servicing and In-Place Upgrades https://setupconfigmgr.com/windows-10-servicing-and-in-place-upgrades-in-microsoft-sccm etc. |
#14
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Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
In article , bbbl67
@spammenot.yahoo.com says... But at least it starts from a slimmer base again. For fun (!?) I tried this on the existing installation on the machine I intend to replace with the new one. It took a long time, installed lots of updates along the way, and all seems to be OK afterwards. (I didn't keep an exact count, but the number of installed DLL's appeared to have shrunk by a lot - so much for "cruft" as Yousef suggested would be the case.) I will certainly give this a try before I resort to the paid alternatives (Laplink etc.) that purport to perform the migration. Existing apps that I've tried since operate normally after a tweak or two to their settings. |
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